“I truly love your Woodworker’s Journal online and all the information and plans. What a great job you all do!” – Dave Ryan
Thank you. We try. – Editor
Shipboard Cutting Board
“Great story about the cutting board on board the old concrete ships. Very touching.” – Michael Glaze
“What a neat story. As a Tampa native, I am grateful for this bit of Tampa history. I have heard of the McCloskey Ship yard and its concrete ships. My mother was a ‘Rosie the Riveter’ for a short time at a shipyard in Tampa during World War II while my dad was overseas. I don’t think she worked at McCloskey’s as I doubt that they used rivets on concrete ships.” Jack Waters
“It seems that good old stories, just like good old cutting boards, just never die. This is a great story, and I really appreciate someone taking the time and effort to bring not only the cutting board back to life, but also the memory of the concrete ships back to life. I refurbished my grandmother’s cutting board as well as her biscuit mixing bowl some years ago, and my wife still uses it almost every day. Each time I see it, memories of my grandmother and grandfather flood back. I see the much simpler days without indoor plumbing or central heat, raising your own food and everyone pitching in. No one had specific jobs, but everyone knew what had to be done and did it without complaint. I don’t know why this story elicited these memories, but I’m glad you saw fit to publish it. Thanks.” – Harry King
A Question of Lathe Speeds
“On a question regarding lathe speeds, John Swanson responded, ‘The speed of the lathe times the diameter of the pieces should never exceed 8,000.’ 8000 what?” – Art Gass
That number is a pure numerical value, not a measurement, but missing from the instructions were the speed and diameter units of the two measurable factors. Speed is in RPM (revolutions per minute,) and diameter is in inches. John assumed both were obvious since you’d be hard-pressed to get a number like 8,000 on a typical lathe with any other common units of measurement in the English system. – Editor
Lift It
“I subscribe to your site and reside in the UK. I am particularly interested in the latest issue regarding the TV lift. I have been on their web site and have attempted to contact them via e-mail, but keep getting a mail delivery failure message. Telephoning from the UK is not a practical alternative. Is there something you could suggest so that I could contact them online, or maybe you could contact them and alert them to the problem with their web site – I am sure they would not want to lose custom. Many thanks in anticipation.” – James Howard
James, we tried the same email address and got the same failure notice, so we called the company to see what was up. It turns out that the connection got lost when they moved to new offices. It’s since been fixed and is up and running as of this writing. Thanks for bringing it to our (and their) attention. – Editor
Typo Corner
Our ever popular typo corner is where a slip of the finger can create oddly humorous assertions, like the one below. – Editor
“I live in the dessert where there isn’t much humidity.”
You live in a dessert? You mean like a gingerbread house? Of course, all the English teachers among us will remember the memory trick for desert/dessert, diner/dinner, and super/supper. The words that contain a double letter are edible (they’re doubly delicious, or twice as tasty), while the single letter versions are not. – Editor
